1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to recording and/or reproducing data from a medium, and more particularly, to an optical disc player and method rapidly determining whether a session on an optical disc is open or closed.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic storage media which store data using magnetic fields, such as floppy disks, have small storage capacities and thus lack the capability to store more recent multimedia information. Thus, media such as optical discs have been developed to improve upon the storage capacity of magnetic discs. Such media have relatively large storage capacities, along with high-speed searches being possible with respect to the medium. As a result, the use of media such as optical discs has been growing rapidly. Examples of the optical disc include compact disc (CD)-read only memories (ROMs), digital versatile discs (DVDs), and the like, for example.
Here, an optical disc will be referred to as a recording medium on which data can be recorded and from which data can be reproduced using an optical method. As an example, uneven portions can be formed in a predetermined track on the optical disc using a laser light beam to record a “1” or “0” thereon, and accordingly, a reflected or projected light beam can be detected from the optical disc to reproduce the recorded data.
Data may be recorded in session units in the optical disc. A session can refer to a record area on an optical disc (CD, DVD, or the like) including one or more audio or data tracks. A track can further refer to an area on the optical disc in which data can be recorded and may be further divided into a plurality of sectors. In a case of a CD, a session may be similarly divided into multi-sessions in which data is recorded. The multi-sessions indicate that a bare CD is divided into several sessions to store data. In this case, if the last session is still open, the last session may be opened to store additional data.
FIG. 1 illustrates a configuration of a multi-session into which an optical disc can be divided. Referring to FIG. 1, the multi-session can include a power calibration area (PCA), a program memory area (PMA), a first session, a second session, . . . , and an nth session, for example. Each of the first session, the second session, . . . , and the nth session can include a lead-in area, a program area, and a lead-out area.
The PCA can refer to an area reserved in a first part of a bare medium, e.g., a CD, to calibrate an optical pickup unit of an optical disc player, for example. The PMA can refer to an area that temporarily stores information regarding recorded contents, such as the track number, a start time, and an end time, and a disc ID, before a session is closed when recording with respect to a respective track of the session. The lead-in area can be a starting part of each of the first session, the second session, . . . , and the nth session, as well as an area that stores various types of information as to the state of the CD. The lead-in area can store information regarding the capacity of the CD, the maker, and the like, of the CD, including the table of contents (TOC) information as to each respective session that is closed. The program area can be a substantial area in which a user can record data, and the lead-out area can indicate that the recording of data is completed and that a corresponding session ends.
When the user records data on an optical disc, for example, the user can set an option to selectively open or close a session. When the user selects to open an available session, the user can record additional data on the optical disc. However, when the user selects to close the session, the user cannot record data on the optical disc any more.
When the optical disc is mounted, a central processing unit (CPU) of the optical disc player checks the TOC information recorded in the lead-in area of each of the first session, the second session, . . . , and the nth session to determine the number of sessions and whether the sessions are closed. Thus, the CPU completely checks the TOC information as to all of the first session, the second session, . . . , and the nth session, and the CPU can then perform reproduction of data, starting from the first session.
Although the CPU can perform reproduction with respect to the lead-in area of the nth session during sequential checking of the TOC information of each of the first session, the second session, . . . , and the nth session, the CPU cannot recognize that the nth session is the last session. Therefore, the optical pickup unit moves to a predicted position to search a lead-in area of a next session, even though the next session may be unrecorded. Accordingly, the conventional optical disc player requires a large amount of time to determine that the next current position of the optical pickup unit is a data unrecorded area.
Since pits indicating data, for example, may not be recorded in the data unrecorded area, a laser signal for reproducing data is almost totally reflected from the data unrecorded area. Thus, when a long time is required to determine that the current position of the optical pickup unit is the data unrecorded area, the optical pickup unit may not normally track the data unrecorded area. Accordingly, an error may occur during the search for the TOC information, and thus data may not be reproduced. Also, since only the remaining sessions, except for an open session, are recognized, reproduction may be performed with respect to only the remaining sessions.